Life Jacket Servicing.

[The Jester]

I've got 4 manually operated jackets, and think they are due a sevice since i've had them 3 years.

How do you lads go about it ?. Do you check the guage is on green and assume its ok ?. Do you buy a new refill after a couple of years and fit it regardless ?. Or do you take them to a chandlers or service professional ?.

Iwould appreciate some advice on this.....Cheers...Chris....

[King Ling]

life jackets

Hi chris can't give you much advice but i was down trident uk last week and asked about the life jackets as i dont know how old mine are.He said manual ones should be checked every 2 to 3 years and auto ones every year,this is probalys no help but i am getting a new one this year coz a cannet swim at all,auto for me.

[Charlie_Thompson]

Just make sure you keep the best one for yourself

[Kev1n]

Chris, the info from th RNLI should get you started:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/assets/documents/Sea%20Safety/Caring%20for%20your%20Lifejacket.pdf

Note how the jacket was packed before you inflate it so you know the best way to fold and re-pack it.

[The Jester]

Thanks for that lads, i'll bring them home today, inflate them, and give them a good check over.

[mark]

renew the canisters every 2 or 3 years but keep the old ones, and/or a spare on board, in case any one sets one off accidentally you can re-arm it there and then

one thing I've found with min that's worth regular checking is that the canisters haven't come loose, a quarter turn loose and they probably won't get triggered and inflate

[The Jester]

renew the canisters every 2 or 3 years but keep the old ones, and/or a spare on board, in case any one sets one off accidentally you can re-arm it there and then

one thing I've found with min that's worth regular checking is that the canisters haven't come loose, a quarter turn loose and they probably won't get triggered and inflate

Mark, i've just checked the canisters and 3 out of 4 needed tightening, I've inflated them as per Kev's link to the RNLI site. Also fitted a horseshoe life buoy to the boat this morning, still need a couple of parachute flares, then the boat should be sorted, safety wise

[mark]

sounds about right. it seemed with mine a while back that every time I picked em up the canisters needed that little extra turn to tighten them. I bought a load of new canisters for mine a few years back so thought I'd fire one of the old ones out of interest... pulled the toggle and nothing happened. the cannister was just a fraction of a turn loose.

checked all the rest and they were all the same, so its now a regular check